


It was all Very Spooky

by WhoopsyDaisies



Category: Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Dark Humor, Death, Friendship, Gen, Ghosts, Murder Mystery, Mystery, blood mention, musical verse, not beetlebabes, possible future beetlelands, post show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-01-05 04:17:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21207260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhoopsyDaisies/pseuds/WhoopsyDaisies
Summary: Beetlejuice isn't that bad to have around. Especially when people stop just assuming things about him. And when he stops assuming things about people. And when Lydia yells at everyone to be nice.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey what's up I haven't written fic in about ten years I think? Recently saw the musical and fell head first into this fandom. I want to make it clear that Beetlejuice and Lydia are both irreverent and joke but they are friends who just get each other. I have plans for this to expand into more, including Beetlejuice/Adam/Barabara. Please let me know if you like it! Thanks for reading!

Field trips were never great. Especially overnight weekend “enrichment” trips. It definitely didn’t help that the teacher in charge was a particularly nervous small town man who had been in the city maybe once in his life and kept trying to police every move Lydia made. Somehow he failed to realize that she’d grown up in this town and knew very well how to handle herself and who to avoid. Maybe next time he’d listen when Lydia objected to him directing their group into the only empty subway car. Unfortunately, he seemed to be too stubborn to admit that maybe he was a little out of his depth. 

Still, the actual educational portion of the trip was at least mildly interesting. Lydia hadn’t realized how much she missed just spending an entire afternoon at the Met and getting lost in the exhibits there. The tour was boring, but once they finally had a chance to explore on their own, she’d managed to slip away from her small group of two other girls and finally enjoy herself. Her favorite part of the museum was strangely the storage area. Something about seeing the stacked up pieces of furniture and random paintings just waiting for an area of the museum to need them spoke to her. Of course, this time things were a little different. Ever since she’d first seen the Maitlands and had the whole experience with you-know-who, she’d been far more sensitive to anything… not in the realm of the living. It took her a second to realize that the person standing behind her in the reflection of an ornate mirror was not actually physically behind her. 

Even with the things she’d experienced, her heart rate picked up as she looked behind her and back at the mirror. The woman she’d seen was gone, at least for now. Hyper aware that there didn’t seem to be anyone around, she scanned over the rest of the items, reading the tag for the mirror but not seeing much information besides a date and the collection it belonged to. There was a chill in the air that didn’t seem to bode well. 

“Lydia!” 

She jumped and turned back around to see the two girls she was supposed to stay with rounding the corner of the aisle she was in. 

“Hey.” she said, taking a deep breath to steady herself. 

“You know Mr. Johnson would kill us all if he caught us splitting up.” Mary, the slightly older girl said as they reached her.

“Sorry I…” Before Lydia could finish, she felt a rush of air behind her and a voice cut in.

“You can see me?”

The voice was soft, feminine and seemingly unthreatening. However, Lydia really didn’t want to tempt fate and was fully prepared to completely ignore the question until she saw Mary’s eyes widen. 

“Who said that?” Mary said, looking around, “Is this another one of your tricks?” 

“You can, can’t you?” The voice said from behind Lydia, a little more eager this time. 

Mary’s head whipped to the side, eye’s getting a bit bigger as she looked into the mirror. “Please tell me this is a trick.”

“What is it?” The other girl, Robin said, taking a step back, obviously not experiencing the same thing. 

Lydia took a breath and shook her head, “It’s not me this time, promise.” She said softly before turning around, just hoping this wasn’t going to bite her in the ass. 

The woman standing before her looked not unlike Barbara. Long auburn hair, light pink floral dress to her ankles. Her face looked serene yet hopeful and Lydia backed up a step as she heard Mary whisper something to Robin about the mirror being clouded over. Lydia didn’t dare take her eyes off the ghost in front of her. 

“You can see me.” The woman said again, this time with a strange satisfaction, her face twisting into a sick grin, the rest of her seeming to blur around the edges. Her voice rose to a slightly higher pitch as she giggled. 

“Finally.” She announced and disappeared from view right before the glass on the display in front of the mirror exploded outward. 

Robin and Mary screamed as Lydia turned to them, lifting her arms up to shield herself from the spray of glass shards. “Run!” she yelled, pushing both girls ahead of her and taking off without looking behind her. Glass continued to break on the displays as they ran, shielding their faces, forearms stinging as exposed skin started bleeding from small cuts. 

“I’ve waited so long for someone to see me, to free me.” Came the chilling, high voice of whatever the woman was, seeming to come from all around them as they ran. 

Lydia got ahead of the other two and led them around the corner to the door to the stairs. She pushed, but it wouldn’t budge. Mary screamed again and helped her push and pull as Robin pounded on the door. Suddenly Lydia felt something pull at her, throwing her away from the door and across the room. She landed heavily, only sparing a moment to be grateful she’d been thrown away from the glass on the floor before pushing herself up and ducking into one of the rows of items. She peered back around the corner, seeing Robin laying motionless having been thrown in the other direction of the door from Lydia. Mary wasn’t currently anywhere in sight, but the spectral woman manifested over Robin. Lydia quickly ducked back into the row, trying to calm her breathing. Some of the display cases had shattered down this row as well, so she had to be careful where she stepped so she wouldn’t make any noise as she moved away. 

“No, no no! Not this one. Not this one.” The voice of the woman said and Lydia just hoped it meant that Robin was safe for now.

The temperature seemed to drop even more as she moved, mind racing. There was a gap in the row between display cases and she nearly screamed when she looked around the corner and nearly ran into Mary’s back. She quickly reached up and put her hand over Mary’s mouth, pulled her close and turning her around quickly to let her know it was just Lydia. 

“Shhh.” Lydia whispered. “Follow me, I think I saw something over here that we can use.” 

She led Mary to a display she’d seen earlier, the barrier glass now gone giving her access to a large armoire. They heard another few screams from across the room, no doubt other museum visitors who’d been in the room when this whole thing started. Mary looked around frantically, hand squeezing Lydia’s tighter. 

“In here.” Lydia said, opening the door of the armoire, and practically pushing Mary inside before getting in and closing the door behind them. She pulled a sharpie out of her camera bag as Mary frantically fiddled with her phone. 

“It’s not working.” Mary said, helplessly, trying to make a call.

Lydia ignored her and drew a complicated symbol on the door, breathing more easily once it was completed. “We should be safe in here, for now.” she said, “At least for long enough to figure something else out.”

“What else can we figure out?” Mary said in disbelief, “What is happening here? What’s that symbol? Oh god, where’s Robin?”

Lydia reached out and squeezed her shoulders. “Hey, calm down okay? Deep breaths. I think Robin’s ok. Whatever that is, I think it just wants me.” She didn’t mention that it might also be after Mary since she also heard it’s voice. “That’s a protection symbol from… a book I read. It works, trust me.” 

Mary nodded and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down. She shivered and squeezed her arms around herself. “Was that really a ghost?” 

“I don’t know.” Lydia said, leaning back against the side of the armoire. “If it is, it’s more powerful than any ghost I’ve seen.”  
Mary didn’t bother asking how many ghosts Lydia had seen. She honestly didn’t want to know. She just wanted to get out of there. 

“What do we do now?” She said quietly.

Lydia looked down, considering her options before jumping as she heard something fall from a few rows down. 

The thing’s voice sounded even less human now as it screamed out frantically, and several things seemed to be thrown around. 

“It’s hard to know what to do since I don’t know what it wants.” She sighed and shook her head. It was pretty obvious that the thing had been trapped in the mirror, but she didn’t know a way to trap it again.There wasn’t time to try to find out more, and she couldn’t call home and have Barbara or Adam look anything up in the handbook. 

“Oh god.” she said, dropping her head as she thought of something. 

“What?” Mary asked, almost scared to know. 

“I… have an idea but I have no idea if it will work, and if it does? It might make things worse.”

“Hard to imagine things getting much worse.” Mary said in disbelief, “If you have a way to get us out of this alive you should just do it!” She was shaking harder now, Lydia noticed, which is what it took to make up her mind. 

“Just, stay here, ok?” She said with a sigh. “You’ll be safe as long as that symbol is intact.” 

“Trust me. Not leaving.” Mary said in a frantic whisper.

“Here.” Lydia said, shrugging out of her jacket and laying it over Mary. “I’ll be back soon.”

She slowly pushed open the door and slipped out, shutting the door behind her quietly. She moved quietly towards the sounds of items being thrown around until she could see it. The figure was even more blurred, the hair a dark black and the dress looking more like a smear of pink. Whatever it was seemed to flicker as it sensed Lydia, turning towards her with a smile that appeared to cut it’s head in half. 

“There you are.” It’s voice was terrifying in the fact that it was utterly calm, devoid of the panic it seemed to be in before.

“Here I am.” Lydia said, squaring her shoulders, “Never met anything like you before. What do you want.”

It remained silent for a few tong tense, staring at her with that same deadly, gleeful expression glued to its face.

“All ghosts want something.” She said, crossing her arms. “So what. Do. You. Want.” 

The whole thing seemed to swell, rising higher into the air, fading enough that it looked more like a mass of colors than anything else. A noise began to emit from it as it’s form flickered, the lights blinking, pieces of glass and broken furniture floating into the air. It took a minute for Lydia to understand the words it was slowly forming, but her blood ran cold when it did.

“Yoooouuuurrrrrr bodyyyyyyyyyyyyyy” It said, spreading out and slowly starting towards her.

She took a few steps back and stared at it straight on. 

“Beetlejuice.” 

It started condensing back towards itself as it got closer. 

“Beetlejuice.”

It surged up with a scream, lights dying completely as it rushed toward her.

“BEETLEJUICE” Lydia yelled at the top of her lungs, squeezing her eyes shut.

For a moment, nothing happened, no rush of wind, no screams, no pain. 

Slowly, she opened her eyes, blinking as all she saw was a familiar pattern of black and white stripes.

“Holy crap, Lyds. Not only did you find a poltergeist, but you found a cursed poltergeist?” He craned his head to shoot her a wide eyed grin, “Is it my birthday?”

She backed up, hitting the wall as she peered around the demon in front of her to see the thing that had been rushing towards her was hovering in a condensed ball of fog, shaking as it seemed to fight against an invisible barrier. 

“She’s MINE” the poltergeist screamed desperately as Beetlejuice turned back towards it, practically bouncing as he stepped forward.

“Hey that’s not cool, bro.” He said, wagging a finger at it and making a tsking sound. “Cosplay is NOT consent.” 

Lydia rolled her eyes and finally caught her breath, Beetlejuice’s familiar antics made her feel bold enough to step beside him. “Sorry.” she said to the struggling poltergeist, lips quirking up and hands on her hips. “I guess I should’ve warned you that my ex-husband has quite the temper.”

“Technically it’s ‘late’ husband, Babes.” Beetlejuice said with a surprisingly fond chuckle. He cocked his head, taking a closer look at the spectre in front of him. “Jesus you’re a piece of work.” 

Lydia snorted and watched him with a smile. She really had missed that fun back and forth they’d had. 

“I wasn’t sure you’d come.” She admitted, only stopping from moving closer when he held up a hand.”

“Can’t say no to a summons.” He said, shooting her a wink before waving his hand at the spectre with a flourish, sending it screaming across the room. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” He smirked, “I’ve got some poltergeist ass to kick.”


	2. Homecomings aren't easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the little incident at the museum and how it might take a bit of adjusting to have Beetlejuice around more often.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've played around with the lore a bit. It's mostly the musical with a bit of the movie and my own imagination. Enjoy! Thanks to everyone for the kudos and comments! It's really encouraging to me!

“So that thing was trying to possess me, right?” Lydia asked, letting her legs swing loosely from where she was perched on the roof of the hospital she and the other girls had been taken to after the accident. Beetlejuice stood on the ledge beside her, arms crossed and examining the street below them. 

“Sure was. You’d think you’d have learned by now not to interact with malevolent spirits.” He said, glancing over to her with raised eyebrows, “I mean, look what happened last time. By the way, is this going to be a thing now? You summoning me to take care of your problems and then just banishing me when you don’t need me anymore?” He paused and kicked a bit of loose gravel off the ledge. “Because that’s rude.” 

Lydia rolled her eyes. She figured he’d be sore about that. After the poltergeist had been taken care of she’d said his name three more times, revoking his ability to directly affect the living. “You know I didn’t mean it like that, right? The cops were coming in and I didn’t want you to kill anyone and…” She sighed and turned, swinging her legs around so they were dangling over the floor of the roof and not over a sheer drop. “I panicked.” 

“You don’t trust me.” He said, jumping down and leaning against the ledge. “I guess that’s only fair. I mean, I did what I did, but you actually literally killed me and I’ve saved your ass twice now.” He softened the statement with a teasing smile and she swatted at his shoulder. 

“So I guess I owe you then?” She said before narrowing her eyes, “You seem different. Did your vision quest work out or something?”

“Nope. No idea who dear old dad is. Things are just weird now.” He shrugged and pushed away from the ledge, floating a few inches above the floor. Something happened after Lydia had killed him, things felt funny. Before, things like loneliness and anger were amplified and everything else was muted. Maybe being human for a short time had evened things out, maybe he was less demon now, or maybe it just worked for the story. He didn’t really care about the why. 

Lydia didn’t bother asking the details. It made an odd sort of sense, after all, things were weird for her too. 

“So are you going to stick around?” She asked after a few moments. 

“Why did you miss me?”

“I dunno.” She looked down and tried to keep a straight face, but a smile peeked through. 

“You totally did!” He crowed and shot up a few more feet before Lydia reached up and grabbed his ankle, pulling him back down. 

“Maybe a little.” Honestly, she hadn’t been the only one, as weird as it was. There’d been a few times she’d overheard the Maitlands talking about how things had at least been exciting with the demon around. “But you have to promise not to try to murder anyone again. And maybe run your stupid ideas by me first.”

Beetlejuice’s face twisted into an overexaggerated pout as his feet landed back on the ground. “You never let me have any fun.”

She shook her head and pushed herself up, making her way to the roof door before stopping and looking back at him, “I’m serious. You need to just talk to me if something’s wrong instead of going full demon at every misunderstanding, ok? That’s what friends do. We are still friends, right?”

Beetlejuice grew serious, straightening his back and shoving his hands in his pockets. “Lyds, you literally killed me. We’re not friends.”

“Oh..” She started to say, shoulders dropping as her face started to crumple. 

“We’re BEST friends!” He shouted, grinning and running toward her with arms spread wide and sweeping her into a crushing hug. 

Lydia couldn’t stop the laugh as she was swung around. 

“Gross, Beej.” 

\--

The police determined that it was simply a case of art theft. Several prominent pieces were missing from the ruined area of the museum. That part had fully been Beetlejuice’s idea and he swore that all of the non-cursed items would be mysteriously recovered eventually. Well, all but the cursed mirror that may or may not still house the poltergeist. Lydia was unclear about the details and didn’t mind keeping it that way. 

The girls in Lydia’s class were keeping their distance and she was extremely grateful that Delia made the drive to pick her up so she didn’t have to bus back with the rest of them. They weren’t cruel, and Mary was shaken up and confused, but no one really understood her or how she handled the situation. In hindsight, using a protection symbol to stop a robbery does seem both odd and concerning. At least to normal people. 

As much as Delia still managed to drive Lydia crazy, she was nice to have around. Especially since she didn’t ask any intrusive questions about what had happened and was content to sing along with her weird “Soothing” music the entire way home. There were no words in the songs. Delia sang along anyway. 

When they got home, Charles was waiting on the front porch reading a newspaper. His briefcase was beside him, tie and jacket draped over it, so he had recently got home from work but had decided to stay outside. He stood up and pulled Lydia to him as soon as he saw her. 

“Are you alright? Does what happened in the city have anything to do with the demon being back?” He pulled away and looked down at his daughter with concern. 

“I’m fine, Daddy, I promise. It wasn’t art thieves like they said. It was something else and I had to summon him.” She looked up at him with pleading eyes, “He helped. I’m really sorry but there wasn’t any other way and he’s different now, I promise.”

Charles sighed and squeezed Lydia’s shoulders. “Don’t apologize for anything. I’m just glad that you’re safe.” A crash came from inside the house and he winced. “You might need to convince the ghosts about the rest of it.” 

Lydia groaned and leaned into her father, breathing deeply and letting herself be comforted for a few moments. She’d really been scared there for a minute, as cavalier as she was about most things, and it was a relief to be back. 

“Okay.” She said, pulling away with determination. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

—

So in hindsight, ignoring Lydia’s request to wait until she got home to reveal himself might not have been the best idea. Popping up through the floor of the attic and pouncing on Adam’s back while making kissy faces at his wife wasn’t a great choice either. Maybe he was a little too excited to see Mr. and Mrs. Sexy again, but who could blame him? 

“I swear I’ll be good, just please let me out?” He tried again, this time really laying it on thick with the puppy dog eyes. 

The Maitlands just stared at him from where they stood outside the circle of salt he was trapped in. Well, not really trapped, but if this made them feel safer he’d play along. It was just getting a little difficult when they wouldn’t talk to him. The couple turned back to each other, Adam’s hands shoved in his pockets and Barbara’s arms crossed. 

“How did he even get here? None of us have said his name.” Adam said in a hushed tone. 

“I’m just glad we contained him before the others got home.” Barbara said, not even bothering to spare a glance in the demon’s direction. That was really annoying. 

While they were busy gossiping to each other, Beetlejuice took the opportunity to look around. Things were quite a bit different in the attic from the last time he’d been there. The random bits of crap where gone, no more half finished knitting projects, no more random musical instruments. Instead there was a large couch situated in front of a television attached to the wall. Behind the couch was a scale replica of the boring ass little town you could see from the window. Two laptop computers were placed on the little makeshift tables on either side of the couch, one closed and one open with several pictures of cats rotating as a screensaver. Most notably, however, was a magazine with very suggestive pictures on the cover laying splayed open upside down on one of the couch cushions. It couldn’t be what Beetlejuice thought it was, not with this vanilla couple. Still, he decided to take a closer look, slipping out of the circle while the couple was facing away from him and failing horribly at hiding their conversation.

He walked on tiptoe, creeping over to the couch and picking up the magazine, eyes widening as he read the title and got a closer look at the very suggestively posed men on the cover. A loud, disbelieving cackle escaped him as he gleefully perched himself on the back of the couch and started thumbing through the pages, baffled as to how something like this ended up here of all places. He’d completely forgotten that he was supposed to be trapped until her heard Babs yell and a block of wood flew by his head, nearly taking it off. 

“Oh god.” Adam moaned when he saw exactly what Beetlejuice was looking at.

A wide, overjoyed grin took over the demon’s face as he hopped up, standing on the couch and waving the magazine at them. “Is this really yours? Holy shit. You two look at porn? You both realize that it’s easier to look at this shit online right?” He gestured to the two computers as he dodged the various items Barbara had continued to throw at him. “Better porn on there too.”

“That’s none of your business!” Barbara yelled, throwing a shoe before lunging at him. “You shouldn’t even be here!” 

Beetlejuice jumped out of the way, off the couch and ran down the stairs, holding the magazine at arms length in front of him, and of course giving Adam’s very well toned ass a good grab as he went by. 

“Had to do it!” He cackled as he ran down to the kitchen, Barbara right behind him, with Adam following them both and calling out to try to get them to stop.

“Barb, honey, maybe we should just…” Adam was cut off as Beetlejuice threw the magazine over Barbara and into Adam’s face. He sputtered and grabbed it, pulling it away to see that the men in it had all been replaced with a fully clothed Beetlejuice posing ing the same way. He made a choking sound and threw it across the room. 

“Oh Adam you just like to play hard to get.” Beetlejuice said, fluttering his eyelashes before dodging Barbara’s fist, ducking and rolling across the room to grab the magazine that had magically returned to normal. Barbara stumbled, knocking over a chair before righting herself and flinging her arms out, knives from the block on the kitchen counter rose into the air and shot towards Beetlejuice who gasped and suddenly sunk down through the floor, the knives embedding harmlessly into the carpet. He shot back up, floating up to the ceiling, still clutching his prize. 

“Someone’s been practicing.” He teased, “Babs, you are sexy when you’re angry.”

“That’s a stupid cliche!” She yelled and the cabinet doors flew open, other utensils flying out and circling Beetlejuice who just floated there laughing maniacally while Adam just watched the whole thing with a resigned sort of amusement. 

Before anything else could happen, though, the front door flew open and Lydia came barging in, Charles and Delia trailing behind her. 

Everyone froze for a moment, not sure what move to make next, everyone sort of eyeing each other and waiting for someone else to say something. Finally, Lydia rolled her eyes and walked to the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of water and perching herself on the counter. 

“Everyone ready to be actual adults and talk about this now?”


	3. Procedural Crime Dramas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone adapts to living with a demon as part of their weird little family and a mystery is brewing.

It took awhile to get things sorted out and it only did get sorted out because no one really wanted to cross Lydia. The decision was finally made that the adults of the house would tolerate Beetlejuice’s presence after he voluntarily cleaned up the mess Barbara and he had made of the house. He refused to fix the marks in the floor though, claiming they gave the room “character”. Charles would have just fixed it himself, but he was sure the demon would just change it back. 

“Why can we see you, though?” Delia asked, “Last time we couldn’t see you until Lydia called for you.” 

“You’ve been living with ghosts for what? Almost a year now?” Beetlejuice shrugged, “You’re used to looking for dead things.”

“What do you mean looking for them?” She asked, brow furrowed

Beetlejuice sighed and laid on his back on the floor, already bored with the conversation, “You don’t see the Maitlands all the time, right? You don’t ever see them enter a room, just randomly notice that they’re there? You can’t see them if you’re not paying attention. Same with me. Except I could probably just….” He sat up quickly and waved his hands, suddenly disappearing from view.

“Where did he go?” Charles asked nervously after a few seconds. As if in response, a book fell off the bookcase, making the two living adults jump. 

Lydia stifled a giggle and pointed at the kitchen, “I can still see him. You guys are too normal, I guess.” 

“That’s...unsettling.” Charles said, not liking the thought of not being able to keep track of the demon. 

“Don’t worry your pretty little head, Chuckie Dear.” Beetlejuice said, reappearing on the couch next to Charles with his arm around his shoulders. “I promised Lyds to be on my best behavior.”

“And I can tell you how to get rid of him if he does misbehave.” Lydia said to her father but shooting a pointed look at Beetlejuice who rolled his eyes and jumped up from the couch. 

“Ok fine.” He said with an overexaggerated pout, “I get it. Now if you’ll excuse me.” He gave a mock curtsy to Charles before whirling around and pointing at the two ghosts standing a little ways apart from the rest of them. “You two.” He narrowed his eyes and walked closer, moving his gaze between the two of them. Slowly, he raised his other hand which was still clutching the magazine from before. 

Adam looked at it, face turning bright red as he looked away. “You uhh… you can keep it.”

Beetljuice’s face lit up, “A present, really? Oh Adam, You spoil me.” He held the magazine dramatically to his heart. “I’ll treasure it forever.” Then with a snap of his fingers it disappeared. “But seriously you two. Better stuff online. I mean it.” He looked at them with narrowed eyes again before bursting out in laughter. “Ok, kids, daddy’s got work to do.” He finally said, turning on his heel and heading to the front door, “You know how to reach me.” 

\--

Life had never exactly been boring in the Deetz/Maitland household, but things had definitely been more interesting with Beetlejuice popping in and out. It had been over a month since he’d returned to help Lydia and he’d proven that he was a lot more stable than he’d been when they first met him. So far, the day had been relatively quiet, Charles and Delia were in town on their own respective business and Lydia had decided to spend some time outside, taking pictures of the area surrounding the house for a photography class assignment. When she returned inside she found Adam sitting at the dining room table, scrolling through the website for the town’s newspaper. 

“I thought the computers weren’t working for you today?” She asked, sitting down across from him and looking through the pictures on her camera. Electronics didn’t always respond well to whatever aura the ghosts put off, sometimes they could control it and sometimes they couldn’t, it just depended on the day.

“Apparently it’s just Barbara that technology has decided to hate today.” He said, smiling up at her, “As long as she stays upstairs I can connect to the wifi, it’s pretty weak though, I can only get a few sites to work. I just wanted to read about the missing girl.” 

“Missing girl?” Lydia asked, setting her camera down and pulling the laptop over to her. There was an article about a college student from a town about an hour away from them who hadn’t been heard from in about a week. According to the article, she had planned on going hiking with some friends in their area but hadn’t shown up to the campsite. Her car had been found on main street, but no one remembered seeing her. The mayor had called for a volunteer search party that was scheduled for later in the day. 

“That’s creepy.” She said after she read it, “Dad’ll probably get even more overprotective now.”

Adam took his computer back with a nod, “Yeah but you should still be careful until they find out what happened to her.” 

“I’m always careful.” She said with a grin and Adam rolled his eyes. Before he could respond, Beetlejuice’s voice came from behind him, along with a pair of arms that draped themselves over his shoulders.

“Now that’s an evil lie.” Beetlejuice said, resting his chin on Adam’s head who immediately tensed and stood up, causing the demon to jump back. “Oh, Adam-baby, I know you’re happy to see me, don’t pretend.” He said with a deep laugh as he stepped around him to sit on the table. 

“I think I’ll go join Barbara upstairs.” Adam mumbled, cheeks a little red as he left them. 

“You know, I will never get how ghosts can blush.” Beetlejuice said, partly to Lydia and partly to himself, “They don’t actually have a circulatory system to make it happen.” 

“Didn’t you say a lot of those things work just because that’s what their souls are used to?” Lydia said, leaning back in her chair.

Beetlejuice nodded, turning to face her and adjusting so he was sitting cross legged on the table, “Yeah, but that’s mostly just an excuse to get things to work for the story.”

“What story?” She asked, lifting a brow.

“Our story, babe.” He grinned and threw his hands up, “What adventure are we going on today?” 

“Search party.” She said, gesturing to the laptop Adam had left behind. When Beetlejuice leaned in to get a better look, the screen went fuzzy and shut off.

“Oops.”

Lydia sighed and explained about the missing girl, and the search party they could volunteer for. 

“So we’re looking for a dead body? Neat.” He said, clapping his hands together. 

Lydia rolled her eyes and didn’t respond to that. He was right after all, and while the article said they were looking for a girl lost in the woods, everyone knew the unspoken truth. It was nice to have someone around who didn’t sugar coat it. 

“It starts in about an hour, so I’m going to grab a few things.” She said, standing up. 

“I’ll go tell Adam and Barbara!” Beetlejuice said excitedly and Lydia just laughed, heading to her room to get ready. 

\--

It wasn’t long before she looked up and saw Beetlejuice floating down through the ceiling of her room, looking a little dejected. 

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked, noting the purple tinge to his hair. 

“Barabara got mad at me again.” He said, settling on her bed and burying his face in the pillows. 

“Well, what did you do?” She asked, sitting down on the chair of her vanity with a sigh. 

“Nothing!” He said, voice muffled. “I’ve been gone for a week. It’s not weird to want a kiss when you’ve been gone!”

“You tried to kiss her?” She asked with an amused expression and Beetlejuice just nodded miserably into the pillows. “She pushed you away?” She asked. He nodded again. “Well, did you ask if you could kiss her?” 

Beetlejuice looked up at that, confusion on his face. “No?” He said, like he didn’t understand why asking would be a necessity. 

“People usually don’t like being kissed without permission, Beej.” She said with a little shake of her head. 

“Adam and Barbara kiss each other all the time without asking!” he pointed out, pushing himself up into a sitting position. 

“That’s because they’re married.” She tried to explain. How did she become the go-to person for explaining human relationships to a demon? “They decided at a certain point in their relationship that they didn’t need to ask anymore and they have permission to kiss each other all the time.”

Beetlejuice furrowed his brow, thinking about it for a moment before speaking. “So you think I should ask to kiss them?” 

Lydia nodded, “That would probably be the best thing to do.”

“But then they could say no.” He responded, sounding a little forlorn.

Lydia paused at that. She knew that Beetlejuice was actually very aware of consent by the discussions they’d had previously. The way he had phrased his last comment was interesting, though. 

“And if they say no, you shouldn’t kiss them.” She said, studying him, “And it sounds like they don’t want to kiss you, Beej.”

He looked even more forlorn at that, hair turning fully purple as he flopped back down on the bed and once again buried his face in her pillow. She was going to have to wash it before she went to bed now. He said something but it was so muffled she couldn’t understand it so she just sighed and stood up, stretching before grabbing her jacket from her bedpost and pulling it on. 

“Just start asking. Yeah, they might say no but at least they’ll stop being mad at you.” she rolled her eyes when he didn’t respond, turning to grab the black messenger bag she’d packed instead. “Come on, we’re going to be late for the search party.”

Beetlejuice rolled over onto his back and pouted at the ceiling. “I changed my mind. Don’t wanna go. No one could see me anyway.” 

Lydia rolled her eyes and pulled out a bag of gummy worms from her bag and threw them at him, hitting him right in the stomach. “Stop moping. If we find the body first, I’ll say your name so you can use your powers to track down how she died.” 

“Can I kill whoever did it?” He asked, perking up a little as he tore open the bag. 

“Assuming she was actually murdered.” Lydia said, turning to walk out the door. “I’ll think about it.” 

\--

The search party began at the campground where the missing girl had planned on meeting her friends. Lydia had been here only a couple times before, mostly for school trips. It was fairly small with a few day camping sights and some rental cabins scattered throughout. Lydia wasn’t that surprised to see several people from her school there, especially the ones who thrived on the drama. They weren’t outright unfriendly, saying hello when they saw her but they didn’t try to talk to her any further than that. She didn’t mind, really, it would be easier to talk to the invisible demon with her if no one was near them. There was a place for the volunteers to sign in and she wrote down her name, ignoring Beetlejuice's insistence that she put his name down as well. 

“You know they’ll probably check the names on there right?” She said once they were a little further away from the crowd, “People here already think I’m crazy enough and with my luck they’d probably accidently say your name three times and summon you.” 

“That might be fun.” Beetlejuice said, hair finally back to its usual bright green as he slurped up the last of the gummy worms. “I could befriend the head detective and end up being the quirky private investigator sidekick. I could have my own procedural drama TV show Lyds!”

“You’re way too excited about that.” She said deadpan before one of the cops with a megaphone started addressing the crowd. He introduced himself and several other people who were involved in the investigation before explaining the grid they would be using for the search and how they were going to break everyone up into groups. Lydia sighed, she’d hoped that she would be able to sneak off on her own but being part of a smaller group would make that much harder. She waited for her name to be called off and walked over to her group.

Just her luck that she was in a group with a girl from her school that was avoiding making eye contact with her. The leader of their group led them past a few of the rental cabins to their starting spot, introducing himself as Ben. He showed everyone the picture of the missing woman, like they hadn’t already seen it plastered everywhere, before giving them instructions to spread out but stay within sight of each other. As he continued to talk, movement to their left caught Lydia’s eye and she turned to see someone watching them from the window of one of the cabins. 

“Hey, Isn’t that the girl we’re looking for?” She said, pointing to the cabin. Ben stopped talking and looked where she was pointing.

“Uh, Lyds?” Beetlejuice said, tugging on her sleeve. “I wouldn’t say anything else.”

“Where?” Ben asked, taking a few steps closer and looking at the empty window as the girl from Lydia’s school sighed. 

“There’s no one there, Lydia. Stop trying to freak us out.” 

Lydia’s eyes widened and she dropped her hand, looking from the woman very clearly standing in the window to the others who were looking at her like she was crazy. 

“Sorry.” She said, offering a weak smile, “Just trying to lighten the mood a little.” 

Ben just shook his head with a forced laugh, “Thanks for the effort, kiddo.” Lydia scowled but otherwise remained quiet. She hated it when people called her that. Ben continued to address the group. As they started to spread out, Lydia turned back to the cabin, noticing the woman was gone.

“I don’t think we’re going to find a body in the woods.” She said to Beetlejuice who offered her a grim smile. 

“Nope.” He said, voice a little to light for the situation, “Definitely not in the woods.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has commented and left kudos! Updates should be coming more regularly now.


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